[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tr2013_6395.jpg]][[caption-width-right:350: [[{{Tagline}} A survivor is born.]]]]

->'''Roth:''' Sometimes you've got to make sacrifices, Lara. You can't save everyone.->'''Lara:''' I ''know'' about sacrifices.->'''Roth:''' No, you know about loss. Sacrifice is a choice ''you'' make. Loss is a choice made for you.

''Tomb Raider'' is a 2013 video game. Published by Creator/SquareEnix and developed by Crystal Dynamics, it was released for the UsefulNotes/{{PlayStation 3}}, UsefulNotes/{{Xbox 360}}, and PC. An [[UpdatedRerelease updated version]], titled ''Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition'', was released for the UsefulNotes/{{PlayStation 4}} and UsefulNotes/{{Xbox One}} in 2014. The game is the second {{continuity reboot}} of the ''Franchise/TombRaider'' series. ''Tomb Raider'' also serves as an {{origins episode}} for the franchise, showing how Lara Croft became the badass {{adventurer archaeologist}} we know and love.

The story opens with a [[NaiveNewcomer fresh out of university, 21 year old]] Lara joining an archaeological expedition in search of the lost island kingdom of Yamatai, home of an [[HistoricalDomainCharacter ancient Japanese queen named Himiko]] who was fabled to control the very weather itself. However, following a shipwreck that cuts her off from the rest of the expedition with no food or supplies of her own, Lara must learn to survive while fighting a dangerous cult that also calls Yamatai their home.

A prologue comic, ''Tomb Raider: The Beginning'', was produced by Creator/DarkHorseComics as a pre-order bonus for Best Buy customers. It serves to flesh out the game's supporting cast, and largely deals with Whitman's struggle to fund the expedition to Yamatai. Like the game, ''The Beginning'' was written by Creator/RhiannaPratchett.

This is also the first game of the franchise that was created after Square Enix bought Eidos Interactive, and although they gave total creative freedom to Crystal Dynamics, their influence can be subtly felt.

Followed by the 2015 title ''VideoGame/RiseOfTheTombRaider''. Also has an interquel comic, written by Creator/GailSimone (with Creator/RhiannaPratchett cowriting some issues), that bridges the gap between the two games, and [[http://www.bradygames.com/promotions/promotion.aspx?promo=139971 an upcoming novel]] picking up right after the first game.

----!!The game contains examples of:

* ActionSurvivor: In this incarnation, Lara is a just-out-of-school 21-year-old before having to learn to survive on Yamatai island. She still has some survival training from her father's old AdventurerArchaeologist friend Roth, of course. A lot of it is that she ''knows'' what to do but probably hasn't done it before.* ActionizedSequel: The game takes a GenreShift from the more PuzzlePlatformer focused previous installments to pure ActionAdventure with a few simple puzzles mixed in.* AintTooProudToBeg: Wounded mooks who are prone to your {{Finishing Move}}s will honestly beg you for mercy. [[ISurrenderSuckers If you grant them mercy, they will start attacking you again.]]* AKA47: The firearms in-game aren't referred to by their actual names but by designators.** The WW2 Submachinegun is a Type-100 Submachine Gun. The upgrade assault rifle is a kitbashed AK-47. Fully upgraded, it ends up as the mutant Ultimax 100 machine gun.** Lara's first pistol is a Beretta 92SB gotten off Vladimir, her first kill, and she later gets an accessorized Remington Model 1911 R1 Enhanced from Roth. Fully upgraded, it becomes a Desert Eagle.** The first shotgun, the "Trench Shotgun," is a Winchester M1912. This is upgraded to the "pump-action shotgun," the Ithaca 37. The final upgrade is the "Combat Shotgun," a Franchi SPAS-12.* AmazonChaser: [[spoiler:[[LoveAtFirstSight Alex already had a crush on Lara]] before the game began]], [[TookALevelInBadass but seeing how badass she's become]] turned it UpToEleven. * AnAxeToGrind: Lara's primary melee weapon is a climbing axe.* AndIMustScream: [[spoiler:The Sun Queen is an immortal spirit who has {{Body Surf}}ed from one host to another for centuries. However, her last intended host, a young priestess named Hoshi, [[HeroicSacrifice committed suicide]] to stop the cycle of {{Grand Theft Me}}'s. This left Himiko's soul trapped in her decaying corpse, and the storms that plague any ships or aircraft that venture too close to the island are a result of Himiko venting her rage. Lara manages to end this by destroying Himiko's body and freeing her spirit]].* AndTheAdventureContinues: [[ForegoneConclusion Lara manages to escape the island]], but the experience changes her outlook on the nature of her father's AdventurerArchaeologist lifestyle, and she resolves to search out the mysteries documented in his old journal.* AndThisIsFor: A rare example of a villain pulling this on the hero. When Lara is captured, one of the CoDragons starts pounding her face and calling out the name of his brother she had killed earlier on.* AntiGrinding: If you attempt to grind experience by hunting animals or killing enemies in previously entered areas, the game has two anti-grinding mechanisms in play to stop you. For the more obvious example, if you hunt a lot of animals in one area, the game will notify you that the area is "hunted out" and you will only receive very small experience bonuses for animal kills. Likewise, the number of enemies spawned in an area you have already been too will be very limited and they will not respawn after being killed. However, you can still grind for salvage if you have the skill that allows you to claim salvage from killing animals, as the game does not limit salvage awarded like it does experience. * ApocalypticLog: Several of them, from multiple authors, stretching back thousands of years.* ArbitraryGunPower: As you get deeper into the game, enemies that you can drop with one or two shots early on are able to take more and more damage. This can be justified when [[EliteMook some mooks]] are wearing body armor, however even regular unarmored enemies will begin taking more damage. This is especially egregious with the shotgun, which can one-shot kill almost everything in its killing zone when you first get it, but by the time you reach the Solarii Fortress regular mooks can take two or three point-blank hits to the torso without going down, even if you have all the damage upgrades. On the other hand, headshots from the bow, rifle and handgun remain as lethal as ever right up to the end of the game, unless they're wearing a helmet or any other headgear (read: all mooks in the final stage), rendering even headshots inefficient.[[note]](That said, the ArmorPiercingAttack upgrade for the bow lets it keep its [[BoomHeadshot headshot lethality]].)[[/note]]* ArcWords: "Reborn", and to a lesser extent "chosen".* ArmorPiercingAttack: One of the later upgrade for the bow, and a fairly essential one since [[HeavilyArmoredMook many enemies at that point in the game start sporting armor]] that otherwise can take multiple direct hits before downing them.* ArrowsOnFire: The appropriately named Fire Arrows in game, where Lara combines a lighter she finds and an arrow wrapped with flammable white cloth, which can then be used to set [[ManOnFire enemies]] or the environment aflame. * ArtifactTitle: As pointed out by [[WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation Yahtzee]] - raiding tombs is [now] tertiary activity at best. The game itself dropped most of its elements from the previous installments to the franchise and changed focus to cover-shooter action adventure.* ArtificialBrilliance: Enemies try to stay in cover during gunfights, will retreat to cover if Lara shoots at them when they're out in the open, use molotovs, fire arrows, and dynamite to force ''her'' out of cover, either run to different cover or [[LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe use their shield]] if Lara uses grenades, and detonate ExplodingBarrels if the player is stupid enough to go near them. * ArtificialStupidity: However, melee weapon mooks who don't have shields will run towards Lara, unprotected, even when she has a machine gun out. Of course, [[FridgeBrilliance those guys might just be suicidal, with the time they've spent on the island]].* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler:Dr. Whitman]], hands down.* AHandfulForAnEye: The skill Dirty Tricks allows Lara to throw dirt in an enemy's eye, blinding them temporarily and allowing for a swift axe strike or easy shot. * TheBackwardsR: Lara reads [[spoiler: her father's journal in the ending]] and one of the pages has a message written this way [[spoiler: which reads, ЭИГХТ ХАВЕ ОРИГИН, ТИМЭ ЭССЕНТИАЛ, ЛОСТ ДЭЭЛ ВИЛЛАГЭ, which, when turned back into proper English, stands for "Eight have origin, time essential, lost deel (sic!) village"]].** Narrowly avoided, as this is a legitimate alphabetic transcription of the English sentence. One that could be understood (with some trouble, as it's not phonetic) by an anglophone when read aloud by someone who knows Russian but not English.* BadassBookworm: Lara. Sam's diaries talk about how Lara was more interested in ruins and history than checking out the local hot spots on previous "adventures", and that in college Sam had to practically drag Lara away from her books.* BadassCrew: The Endurance group could count as a downplayed version of this: while Lara, Sam, Alex and Whitman have barely any combat experience, Reyes is an ex-cop, Roth is a former Royal Marine, and both Grim and Jonah have been in gunfights before, as shown in the prequel comic. And of course Lara grows into one alongside all the [[BrokenBird bird-breaking]].* BearTrap: Early on, Lara is caught in what's probably a wolf trap. Fortunately, it's a kind that doesn't have spikes.* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: Downplayed. Though the good-looking Lara only suffers a few small cuts on her face, by about a third of the way through the game, the rest of her body is a different story. Her shoulders have numerous deep scratches and several cuts, along with several bad scratches on her chest that extend to the part of her left breast that isn't covered by her top(all that squeezing through tight crevices and sliding down mountains). By about two-thirds of the way through, her clothes start to wear out (one pant leg gets a large hole torn in it, and her top is torn to show her camisole bra), and she's usually got quite a bit of dirt and bloodstains on her. Strangely, wading across streams, running in the rain or even standing under waterfalls doesn't clean her up in the slightest (At least when she's just wandering around. Falling into the river during a scene that advances the plot will clean Lara up for a little while). Played straight with Sam, who hardly gets a scratch on her.* TheBermudaTriangle: The game takes place in the Dragon's Triangle. This is basically the Japanese equivalent of the Bermuda Triangle, and one line of dialog explicitly compares the two. (Interestingly the Dragon's Triangle is an actual place, and is often called the Devil's Sea in real life.)* BilingualBonus: The dialogues of Russian characters are pure {{Squick}} for anyone who speaks Russian. --> '''Vladimir''': You're pretty, aren't you? *touches her face* You remind me of my sister.** While crawling around in the underground bunker leading up to the coastal forest, there is a yellow warning sign which basically translates into "wolves will appear without warning" in Chinese, right next to the ladder; and sure enough, the main threat in the next stage are wolves, the first real enemies in the game.* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Lara rescues Sam and escapes the island with the remaining crew of the Endurance. But Lara is stricken with SurvivorGuilt over Roth, Grim, and Alex losing their lives, and what she [[DirtyBusiness had to do to survive]].]]* BleedEmAndWeep: When Lara kills Vladimir.* BloodIsTheNewBlack: Happens when Lara wades through a pool of blood in the Geothermal Caverns.* BodyHorror: Some of the sacrifices made to Himiko are still strung up, with their limbs still slowly stretching apart. [[spoiler:Himiko herself is a gruesome decaying corpse covered by a thin veneer "skin" of porcelain or paint to make her look more like a living person]].* BondVillainStupidity** At one point the Solarii manage to capture Lara and don't kill her. Presumably they want to sacrifice her, or think [[EvenEvilHasStandards it too cruel to kill a woman while she's defenseless]]. ** [[spoiler:Himiko's storms]] twice remove either enemies or obstacles from Lara's path. [[spoiler:She's]] much more understandable, what with the [[spoiler:AndIMustScream]] thing.* BookEnds: The first piece of gear Lara salvages is a torch. [[spoiler:She uses the torch to destroy Himiko's body and release her spirit at the end of the game]].* BoomHeadshot: It only takes a single bullet or arrow to the head to kill most enemies in the game. Even those with armored headgear only take two.* BottomlessMagazines: Averted throughout the game, even with the default bow-and-arrow weapon, although played straight with rope arrows -- a loading screen even specifically touches on the fact that they need no arrow ammo. [[TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything A nice touch is also thrown in where the player will be used to firing arrow after arrow, only for Lara to reach for one in the quiver and find nothing there, with a look of shock on her face.]]* BringIt: Lara gets positively ''epic'' ones once she decides to stop running and start fighting back:** First, she gets the grenade launcher. --> '''Mook''': [[OhCrap Oh shit!]] She's got a grenade launcher, run!--> '''Lara''': [[MookHorrorShow That's right! Run, you bastards! I'm coming for you all!]]** When [[DavidVersusGoliath fighting the]] [[InSeriesNickname Somalian]] when she [[spoiler: returns to The Endurance.]]--> '''Lara''': I'll show you what this little rat can do!** And then at the end when she's confronted with [[spoiler:''an army of undead samurai warriors'']]. --> '''Lara''': Alright you bastards, let's see what you got!** And once more before the final battle. -->'''Lara''': ''You won't stop me, you bastards! Get the hell out of my way!''* BulletproofFashionPlate: Oh so very averted. Lara gets absolutely filthy over the course of the game. In fact, if she's clean in a given scene, that probably means that all the dirt was washed off after recently falling into the river or the ocean... again.* CameraScrew: The camera will shake violently during some platform set pieces, which can make determining safe paths very difficult (''especially'' during the [[ThatOneLevel rapids sequence]]). Additionally there are times when passing through waterfalls and other watery areas where it looks like water is running down the lens obscuring your view.* CampingACrapper: At several points during the game, Lara will sneak up on a group of mooks. If you wait before taking them down one might wander off alone into the bushes or other private corners to relieve himself, allowing Lara to take him down while he's taking a leak. [[TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything There's even a visible urine stream.]]* CaveBehindTheWaterfall: An early tomb.* ChronicHeroSyndrome: [[spoiler: After their rescue plane is struck by lightning, leaving only one of the pilots still alive, Lara is determined to save him despite Roth's insistence that they focus on their own group. Unfortunately, said pilot is killed soon after she shows up.]]* ClimaxBoss: [[spoiler:The head of Himiko's Oni army provides the game's actual "final boss fight", with the final confrontation with Mathias being more of a PostFinalBoss[=/=]CutsceneBoss]].* ClimbingClimax: [[spoiler:The final chapter of the game has Lara climbing up a multi-story monastery, circumvent Himiko's increasingly heavy weather attacks and flee from the Samurai guards beneath]].* ClosedCircle: [[spoiler:Himiko's power traps anyone who gets within range of the Dragon's Triangle on her island until her resurrection ritual is successfully completed or her body is destroyed, making it impossible for Lara and her crew to escape until Himiko is defeated]].* ClothingDamage: In addition to getting CoveredWithScars, Lara's clothes also suffer quite a bit of wear and tear throughout the game. By the ending, they're absolutely ''shredded''.* CoDragons: Two of the Russian brothers, Dimitri and Nikolai serve as the top two enforcers for the leader of the Solari cult. Vladimir might also count, but his involvement in the game is [[HoistByHisOwnPetard rather brief]].* TheComplainerIsAlwaysWrong: Reyes's main trait, before she [[SkepticNoLonger grows out of it]].* ConcealmentEqualsCover: Zig-zagged. The game offers various sorts of cover to hide behind, not all of them plausible. Wooden fences, for example; they stop the first few bullets but quickly get destroyed, leaving Lara vulnerable again, despite the fact they are so thin bullets should be able to penetrate them normally. Gabions and stone outcroppings block all bullets indefinitely.* ContinuityReboot: Does away with the timelines of the CORE and previous Crystal Dynamics series, creating a new AlternateContinuity that still borrows elements from both.* ContinuitySnarl: Crystal Dynamics likes to claim that both the novel and the interquel comics are canon in between the two games, but they contradict each other on whether Lara's in therapy (she's "getting help" in the novels though it's a plot point in the comics that she isn't), Himiko's possession of Sam (Lara manages to end it at the end of the novel, but it's revealed again as a new thing in the comics), and Lara and Sam's living situation (the novel ends with them living together; the comics end with Sam institutionalized). The second game sheds no light on this, with the only mention of Sam being that she "doesn't want to see" Lara and "her doctors" won't let Lara visit. However documents available in the game make it clear that Lara ''is'', or at least has been, in therapy.* ControllableHelplessness: Lara goes through this several times throughout the game:** The player's control of Lara begins with her hanging upside down in a sack, and requires swinging the sack the right way to burn it and set Lara free. That's right -- the first thing Lara does in the game is ''[[DeliberateInjuryGambit set herself on fire]]''.** Shortly after, Lara's foot is caught in a bear trap, and while she's stuck the player has to fight off wolves in the woods that try to attack her.** At one point Lara's hands are tied behind her back, and you have to hide from enemies with flashlights and avoid being discovered while unable to attack.** Midway through the game Lara is [[spoiler: captured by an Oni and suspended by her wrists from the ceiling, and as with the beginning of the game, the player must rock her back and forth in the correct pattern to break free]].** Several times during the game Lara gets caught in a snare and must fight off Solarii cultists while suspended upside down. All you can do is shoot back and are unable to move otherwise (though you can escape by shooting out the winch).* ConvectionSchmonvection: The island is an active volcano, though there's no sign of that at the surface. At one point Lara ends up suspended a few hundred feet above a magma flow in a closed chamber -- which is implied to be hot, but should be unsurvivable.* CPRCleanPrettyReliable: ''Trained survivalist'' Roth uses CPR to revive Lara, despite the fact Lara's accident isn't the kind of thing that CPR would fix.* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Lara can die in a lot of gruesome ways that wouldn't have been out of place in a horror game. See the [[NightmareFuel/TombRaider2013 Nightmare Fuel page]] and ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice entry below for some examples.* CueTheSun: [[spoiler:After Himiko's soul is released from her body, freeing the island of her influence]], the clouds roll away and sunlight spreads across the island. Justified by the fact that the bad weather was not natural to begin with.* CutsceneBoss: [[spoiler:Most of the bosses including Mathias are killed during interactive cutscenes. The Giant Oni Stormguard is seemingly killed off in a cutscene but survives and fights Lara conventionally at the end of the game]].* CutsceneIncompetence: Lara has a bad habit of forgetting she has weapons she can use besides her Bow, leading to some situations that could have easily been avoided with the use of something semi/fully automatic. Even worse is the times she doesn't use anything, and simply watches helplessly as things occur before her that she could have easily helped to prevent [[spoiler: such as when the rescue plane pilot is killed.]] Another example occurs towards the end of the game: [[spoiler: when she decides to storm the palace to save Sam and defeat Himiko, she has a perfect shot at Whitman and Mathias, who are taking Sam to the ritual. She seems to forget that she has a silent bow and up to two guns with silencers attached. Could have saved her a lot of trouble]].** The last example is at least somewhat justified in that [[spoiler: she can see the Oni guards, ''and'' she herself needs to get into the ritual chamber. She may in fact be deciding to follow someone who knows the way.]]** Another happens just before getting the grenade launcher. Laura opts to try to turn the boss's mounted turret against him but is unable to move it fast enough which gives him time to tackle it and knock her to the ground, she could have saved herself the trouble if she just used any of her other much quicker weapons.** At the Geothermal Caverns campsite, Lara mentions that the rescue helicopter isn't safe to board, and she reminds herself to warn the others. When she meets the others, she doesn't tell them about the plane. It's only when the entire place is falling apart that she remembers- too late, as the helicopter gets shot down, directly leading to [[spoiler: Roth's death]].* CutscenePowerToTheMax: Despite the amounts of damage Lara takes in cutscenes that would otherwise realistically kill her, she always manages to truck on.* DamnYouMuscleMemory: Players switching from the [=PS3=] to [=PS4=] buttons may be tripped by the new control scheme, which moves the aim and shoot buttons from L1/R1 to L2/R2, moves the secondary fire button from R2 to R1, and the instinct button from L2 to L1.* DarkerAndEdgier: The darkest and edgiest of the series. Blood and death are everywhere on the island, and there's no escaping it. Sometimes the game crosses over into survival horror territory.* DeadGuyOnDisplay: Taken to almost absurd levels. Almost every single inhabited area has tied-up corpses in it, and sometimes they're even in hidden areas where it wouldn't make sense, like in the crawlspace underneath the shantytown.* DeadMansTriggerFinger: Roth gets an axe to the back, but doesn't fall until he guns down the rest of the Solarii surrounding him.* DeadpanSnarker: Though nowhere near to the extent of her previous incarnations, Lara does have her moments with this. See DoomMagnet below.* DeathByOriginStory: Considering the [[OriginsEpisode nature]] of the game, everyone who dies.* DerelictGraveyard: One beach is covered in shipwrecks from various different eras, and the mainland has rusted old Japanese WWII tanks and crashed airplanes. Since it's been discovered by many different groups throughout history, history's wrecks are all over the island. Unfortunately, absolutely none of the people have been able to leave the island for the last few thousand years...* {{Determinator}}: Lara's defining characteristic.* DisneyVillainDeath: [[spoiler:Mathias, though the multiple bullet wounds could have done him in, too]].* DoomMagnet: At some point, Lara regards herself as one and believes all the ones she cares about will die because of her. Reyes even [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] it:--> '''[[SourSupporter Reyes]]:''' [[spoiler: [[WhatTheHellHero Damn, whoever's caught with you has a pretty low survival rate]]]].--> '''[[SurvivorsGuilt Lara]]:''' [[spoiler: [[DeadpanSnarker Better keep your distance then]]]].* DramaticIrony: [[spoiler: Roth considers Lara to be the daughter he never had. He died not knowing that he was the one who fathered Reyes' daughter]].* TheDreaded: ** Ironically, Lara herself becomes this to the mooks once she begins fighting back against the Solarii. Over time, enemy chatter both in and out of combat reveals that they really, ''really'' don't want to fight her. They don't even know her name, but they start uniformly referring to her as "The Outsider." Not ''an'' outsider. [[SpellMyNameWithAThe THE]] Outsider.** The Stormguard are also feared by everyone on the Island. [[spoiler: When they interrupt the Solarii's attempt to ambush Lara, you can hear the guards screaming in terror and watch them futily try to escape. Even though they had the chance to kill Lara, they clearly are more worried about the Oni.]]* DrivenToSuicide: It's ambiguous, but [[spoiler:Himiko]] herself. The more ground Lara makes the worse the storms affect every vehicle coming to rescue her, but later on in the game [[spoiler: The weather conveniently gets Lara out of more than a couple of jams. Indeed, once Himiko realises Lara is the only person who can stop Mathias she does pretty much all she can to help her without a big neon sign marked '''KILL ME!'''. Which says something about the hell her existence has been, considering she prefers to die rather than take this opportunity to have a new body.]]** Definitely [[spoiler:Hoshi]]. She discovered the truth of [[spoiler:Himiko's {{Body Surf}}ing]] and chose this rather than suffer it. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Unfortunately]], [[spoiler:this causes the whole curse in the first place]].** [[spoiler:The Stormguard General]] did this after the aforementioned character committed suicide on his watch.* EasterEgg: After you collect all the GPS caches, the sound that's played is from when you found a secret in the old Tomb Raider games.* EjectionSeat: The plane Lara calls out an SOS to [[spoiler:gets struck by lightning, and the unlucky pilots launch themselves out of their doomed craft. Sadly, it doesn't end well for both of them]]. Note that the C-130 in real life does not have ejection seats that work that way.* EldritchLocation: The island that Lara and company find themselves stranded on is surrounded by strange and dangerous weather, with hundreds of ships having been wrecked on the island's shores and any aircraft that get too near inexplicably falling out of the sky, making escape impossible. It's population consists of wreck survivors who have all become [[AxCrazy violently insane]] cultists. It's somewhat implied that [[spoiler: Himiko's influence]] is playing a part in their descent into madness, though Mathias isn't helping.* EliteMooks: The toughest Solarii wear metal armor and are equipped with military-grade firepower, while the Stormguard are undead samurai.* EmpathyDollShot: A group of "artifacts" Lara can find acts as one.* EquipmentUpgrade: On two levels; individual abilities and improvements, which can be bought with "salvage", and upgrades which unlock new abilities to buy, which are found by collecting "parts" or given to you at plot-specific moments.* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: The brothers of the first man that Lara killed want payback for his death. When they finally capture her, [[AvengingTheVillain they don't hesitate to give her one hell of a beating as retribution]]. [[FairPlayVillain Mathias has to stop them before they kill her]], though it's arguable [[FateWorseThanDeath why he's doing it.]]* EvenEvilHasStandards: Some enemies on the island. Others are just PsychoForHire. The rest just know that without allying with Mathias, they wouldn't survive being stranded on the island.* ExplodingBarrels: They come in the form of gas cans that are scattered around the island, and they're extremely helpful in a big firefight; when you set them off, they often take out groups of enemies around it easily and efficiently. * ExposedToTheElements: And played with realistically -- one of Lara's early objectives is to find shelter from a frigid rainstorm. Subverted when she enters a snowy area wearing only a tanktop. The subversion however, is arguably [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] considering the first time Lara encounters snow she immediately notes something is very, ''very'' wrong with the weather on the island. (And it's not like she can dig into her luggage and change into more weather-appropriate clothing.)* ExpositoryGameplayLimitation: There are sections where Lara has to make a call with other characters, in which she can only walk, and is unable to do anything else. Additionally, during the ending, the player's normal shoot buttons will get changed to the lower shoulder buttons as opposed to both right shoulder buttons[[note]]The upper right is Lara's weapon's alternate firing mode and the lower one is the normal firing mode, the left buttons are aim and "[[SpiderSense Instinct]]", which invokes NoticeThis on enemies and items.[[/note]] after [[spoiler:you get a second pistol from [[BigBad Mathias]]]]. * ExtremelyShortTimeSpan: The entire game takes place over the course of two days, three days max (it's hard to tell considering the constant storms, and since Lara's watch always shows the same time, it's probably broken, making it no help in figuring this out). It really only serves to highlight just how insane the island is with that in mind though, considering all it took was about seventy hours to turn an {{Adorkable}} NaiveNewcomer post grad into a PTSD-stricken PragmaticHero.* EvilCounterpart: Mathias is depicted as being this to Lara at best. Both are working to escape the island in their own fashion, but Lara is going the extra mile to make sure her own group gets off along with her, while Mathias is just a BadBoss who [[ItsAllAboutMe doesn't give a damn about anyone but himself]].* FatalFamilyPhoto: One of the relics is an old photograph of a young woman that belonged to an American soldier. On the back of the picture is a message from the soldier's sweetheart promising to marry him when he returns home. Lara observes "Someone looked at this picture many times. It's been folded and unfolded repeatedly...He never returned home. This island has taken so many lives."* FateWorseThanDeath: [[spoiler:The original souls of Himiko's hosts (usually her loyal and servile Priestesses of the Sun) are completely destroyed by the ritual that transfers Himiko's spirit into their bodies instead, so she may continue to live and rule Yamatai]].* FinalExamBoss: The final climb up the tower in the middle of a fantastical blizzard acts as one for the LeParkour elements of the gameplay, putting everything you've learned about traversal to the test and demanding the use of nearly every gadget and upgrade to get to the top. The final combat encounter forces Lara to keep moving around the battlefield without the option to simply hide behind cover and take pot shots, causing the player to constantly think on their feet.* {{Foreshadowing}}: Two of the optional subquests involve setting images of Himiko on fire.* GameBreakingBug: The PC version shipped with a bug where PressXToNotDie prompts do not appear on screen. You can guess how that works out for poor Lara.** Another can occur with the ascender not working properly when you use it to reenter [[spoiler:''Endurance'']]. It's random, and reloading the checkpoint does not correct it. The only way around is to exploit another glitch.* GameplayAndStorySegregation / RuleOfFun: The game has a bit of dissonance between the player's in-game actions and the narrative. This is particularly evident with the hundreds of mooks Lara effortlessly guns down throughout the game, while the story implies she's barely hanging on both physically and emotionally. This is particularly egregious during the scene [[spoiler: shortly before Grim's death]], where the player easily blasts their way through a number of mooks and then in the cutscene afterwards Lara comments that she "barely survived" the encounter. [[WordOfGod The writer of the game addressed this issue in an interview]], with the defining quote coming down to the fact that "every kill cannot be like the first kill", basically admitting and lamenting the problem, saying no game has the magic bullet that can solve the issue of having an affable relatable character also massacre hundreds of dudes without blinking an eye, and it's really just something relies on some generous WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief due to the very nature of action games.** On top of the psychological distress of dealing with the enemies itself, while you are given rough numbers for how many people should be on the island, you'll end up having to deal with significantly more enemies than that.** It would have been easy to save [[spoiler:Grim]] in the gameplay, as the headshots you're likely to be used to doing would have solved the problem. Of course, realistically, you wouldn't risk it, but it makes it feel a bit like CutsceneIncompetence.* GenreShift: The game's combat has been changed from the more traditional ''Franchise/TombRaider''[=/=]''Franchise/PrinceOfPersia'' style to something that more closely resembles ''VideoGame/{{Uncharted}}''.* GiantMook: Some of the Solarii wear heavy armor which makes them look bigger and more imposing. Both of the game's bosses [[spoiler: Boris The Tank and the giant Stormguard]] are at least twice the height of Lara.* GoneHorriblyRight: The entire point of the expedition was to find the lost island of Yamatai. The expedition was a success.* {{Gorn}}: This is not a game for the weak-stomached; Lara's death animations can be ''really'' brutal. Plus [[spoiler: Lara kills two of the bosses and by ''smashing their heads in with her climbing axe'']]. And Lara's weapon expert [[FinishingMove Finisher Skills]] can also be startlingly satisfying, with Lara [[spoiler: grabbing them while they're down, stabbing them through the neck with an arrow, shooting them in the face point blank with the handgun or shotgun, or unloading a barrage of bullets from her rifle directly into their chests]]. * GoryDiscretionShot: [[spoiler:Whitman]]'s death, where the Oni turn on him without warning.* GrandTheftMe: [[spoiler: It turns out that every single one of Yamatai's queens were actually Himiko herself, who used her magic to transfer her soul from one body to the next over the centuries. It's narrowly subverted in the finale, with Lara preventing Himiko from taking Sam as her next host body]].* GratuitousJapanese: [[JustifiedTrope The island is off the coast of Japan]]. * GunsAkimbo: Despite this being Lara Croft's signature style in ''Franchise/TombRaider'', Lara only uses this once: [[spoiler:in the finale to finish off Mathias]].* HailfirePeaks: Probably as a result of Himiko's weather powers, parts of the island have completely different weather patterns within walking distance of each other. There's snowy peaks, sunny valleys, eternally windy chasms and more.* HammerSpace: Though Lara only has four weapons, that's also four types of ammo to keep up with (bow with quiver, shotgun with shells, rifle and pistol with magazines) and there's no way she'd be able to carry all of them on her own. Lara's model will always show her carrying her pistol (right leg), climbing axe (left hip), rope coil (right hip), ammunition pouches (left hip) and radio (small of back) at all times, though, along with any of the three two-handed weapons if currently equipped, but the ''other'' two-handed weapons appear and disappear on command. Not shown in any way are all the collectibles she's lugging around which include helmets, vases, swords, numerous books and a cuddly toy.* HannibalLecture: Mathias gives one once you pass the point of no return, calling out Lara on all the horrible things she's had to do and the countless people she's had to kill just to survive, [[NotSoDifferent making her no better then him]], and that [[WhatIsEvil there are no heroes on this island.]] Lara, for her part, doesn't deny his accusations, but doesn't seem to be very fazed by the little speech either.* HappyEndingOverride: The tie-in comics that take place after the game reveal that [[spoiler: Sam, whose rescue was one of the primary goals of the entire game and who seemed to be in good health at the end, ended up being indefinitely locked away in a mental institute due to still having a piece of Himiko inside her.]] * HealItWithFire: At one point, lacking medical supplies, Lara cauterizes her own side wound with an arrow heated with a lighter. The pain of this leads her to a EurekaMoment in which she makes herself [[TrickArrow fire arrows]].* HeroicSacrifice: ** [[spoiler:Roth, Grim and Alex, to help Lara survive. Which means untold amounts of SurvivorsGuilt for her]]. ** As told in one of the ancient scrolls that Lara can collect, [[spoiler:Hoshi, one of the Sun Queen's priestesses, realizes what happens to the Queen's chosen "heirs". Himiko has been [[BodySurf body surfing]] for generations, keeping herself alive by transferring her soul into a new body when her current one grows older. Hoshi steals a dagger from the Stormguard General and commits suicide during the ritual, deliberately breaking the cycle in order to stop Himiko and to save all the priestesses who would have come after Hoshi and also been used as sacrifices]].* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Chinese historical records dated to the 3rd Century AD reference a Japanese queen by the name of Himiko, who ruled a kingdom called Yamatai-koku and died sometime around the year 248. So Himiko may have, in fact, really existed. Unfortunately the historical record is rendered even murkier by the fact that the earliest known Japanese histories (8th Century AD) make no mention of her at all. The controversy and debate over Himiko and Yamatai's existence, which forms the basis of the game's backstory, is still a hot-button topic of debate among historians.* HoistByHisOwnPetard:** Shooting and wounding Solarii sappers when they prepare to throw will cause them to drop their molotov cocktails or sticks of dynamite, potentially killing themselves. There's even an achievement for the latter by making someone drop a stick that kills at least two mooks. ** When Lara [[spoiler: is escaping the destruction of the Solarii fortress, Nikolai attempts to stop her and get revenge for the deaths of his brothers with a heavy machinegun equipped with a grenade launcher. Using LeParkour, Lara is able to outflank him and disable his gun, and blows him up with his own grenade launcher.]]** [[spoiler: Whitman is done in by his own arrogance when Mathias tricks him into approaching the Stormguard as a distraction]].* HollywoodCB: Lara and her companions communicate primarily through two-way radios, and they interrupt and talk over each other ALL THE TIME. They also routinely tell each other where they are, even though they are surrounded by cultists who are looking for them, who could easily be listening in.** Very little consideration is given for the range of these devices. The only time they have any trouble is reaching someone outside the island.** When Lara radios for help, she does so from the radio that is built in on the top of the radio tower. However, when the pilot radios back, everyone else can hear it over their two-ways, despite being out of range and almost certainly on a different frequency - unless they're hearing Lara talk to the pilot over Lara's short range radio, which is turned on and nearby.** Lara's radio is also conveniently water-proof (or at least blood-proof).* HopeSpot: At one point early in the game, Lara has to make her way inside the enemies' base to radio for help. After fighting her way inside, she finds the controls busted. So Alex tells her to climb up the radio tower to do it manually. She succeeds and they manage to get the signal out. Lara even manages to make a makeshift flare as well. [[spoiler: But of course, just as the plane flies in, Himiko uses her powers to conjure a lighting storm and brings it down. Lara sees the pilot survive and tries to reach him, but the Solarii get to him seconds before Lara does and kill him]]. When going to find [[spoiler:Alex, GenreSavvy players will most likely assume that he's dead, because that's just what happens when a video game protagonist goes on a rescue mission. Then Lara overhears some of the scavengers talking about how Alex is still alive, just trapped in the ship. Lo and behold, when Lara finds him, he's still alive -- injured, but alive! Enjoy the moment, [[HeroicSacrifice because he doesn't stay that way for long]]]]. Then Lara is bursting with joy when she discovers a jade figurine she believes belonged to Kublai Khan's lost voyage. [[spoiler: [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking She is truly disappointed when she finds the 'Made in China' etching]].]]* [[HowMuchMoreCanHeTake How Much More Can She Take]]: Throughout the game, Lara manages to take several falls, getting stabbed in the gut, and getting caught in a bear trap among other things, and keeps going. Made painfully obvious when you encounter Roth who has his leg mauled by a wolf. Lara makes a huge fuss about how he needs medical attention, ignoring the fact that she has suffered much worse damage, including the aforementioned impalement and the partially-broken bear trap.* IdiotBall: Every time the characters have a shot at Mathias, they suddenly decide to stop shooting, or they shoot a Mook instead.* HundredPercentCompletion: You'll need every relic, document, map, and GPS... as well as all of the challenges which do not appear on your map.* IllKillYou: Often shouted by the melee Solarii as they rush at you with machetes and swords. Knowing Lara, they're usually [[IneffectualDeathThreats dealt with rather quickly]].* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: ** Lara gets impaled through the torso with a shard of rebar in the opening seconds of the game, after solving her first predicament.** Veering too far off course during a scene in which Lara is being dragged down a river causes her to be impaled through the neck with a pole. It's even more gruesome since she struggles and gasps for breath for a few seconds before finally dying.** This is also one possible result of falling into the water from a zipline on Shipwreck Beach, as well as the consequence of failing to [[spoiler:dodge trees]] enough times while [[spoiler:gliding the parachute down from the waterfall]].** Some of the mooks armed with spears and naginata can kill Lara this way if her health is low enough. The Stormguard warrior will even stab his spear into the ground afterwards and watch as Lara's corpse slides down it!* ImpromptuTracheotomy: See ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice above.* ImprovisedArmor: As you progress, enemies with armor in the form of steel plates strapped to their limbs and torso become increasingly common. More EliteMooks wear welder's masks in addition to the steel plates.* ImprovisedZipline: They're all over the place, with Lara using her axe in lieu of a pulley to use them. With the rope arrows, Lara can make her own. * InjuredPlayerCharacterStage: About halfway through the game, Lara gets more hurt than usual. She's not terribly inhibited in this sequence, although she staggers and takes damage whenever she jumps.* InnocenceLost: Pretty much the whole point of the plot is watching Lara get torn apart and put back together in one long, brutal BreakTheCutie moment. The game even has an unlockable model called "Innocent Lara" used for scenes before the shipwreck.* InterplayOfSexAndViolence: While there was some controversy around it before the game was released, the scene in question plays itself a lot closer to this trope then RapeAsDrama. [[spoiler: Lara is held captive by one of the Solarii and while his treatment of her has a twinge of DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything, nothing comes of the encounter but death, making his actions feel a lot more like a twisted psycho savoring a kill CombatSadomasochist style. The real drama, however, is ''not'' the sexual assault. It's Lara's reaction to [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone having killed another human being]].]]* InvoluntaryGroupSplit: Shortly after rescuing and reuniting with [[spoiler: Sam in the already crumbling Solarii Fortress, some falling debris block the doorway as Sam runs ahead of Lara, leaving Lara to face a roomful of Solarii and find another way out alone as Sam makes her escape]]. * {{Irony}}: One of the early secret areas will have Lara complain, "I hate tombs." [[Franchise/TombRaider Imagine that!]]* IslandOfMystery: Yamatai.* ItGetsEasier: The first time Lara kills a person, it's a horrifically traumatic event that signals the start of her development to becoming an ActionGirl. She then proceeds to slaughter hundreds of people throughout the rest of the game.-->'''Lara:''' I killed some of them.\\'''Roth:''' That can't have been easy.\\'''Lara:''' [[LampshadeHanging It's scary just how easy it was.]]** To show how much of a shift this becomes for her, Lara's ''first'' kill in the game is a deer she must hunt for food, and she actually ''apologizes'' to the animal for doing so.* ItsALongStory: Lara's answer to Roth once asking how she got way ahead of him in going off to find the DamselInDistress. It involved rapids and a parachute.* JustPlaneWrong: When Lara transmits a distress signal, an airplane flies in, presumably to pinpoint their exact location, [[spoiler:and is brought down by a lightning strike. Modern aircraft are entirely unaffected by lightning strikes; in fact, it's estimated that each airplane in the U.S. commercial fleet is struck by lightning an average of ''once a year.'' Though it's justified by the fact that the lightning is decidedly ''not'' a natural occurrence, but a demonstration of Himiko's power to keep anyone from leaving Yamatai.]]* KillItWithFire: Using the [[ArrowsOnFire Fire Arrows]] (and later Napalm Arrows), Lara can set [[ManOnFire her enemies on fire]]. Shooting gas cans and oil spills will also cause [[StuffBlowingUp explosions]] that set enemies aflame, and God help any mook caught within range of a fumbled Sapper Molotov. * KirkSummation: See below.** ShutUpKirk* LaughingMad: The denizens of [[spoiler:the Pit]] have been stuck on Yamatai so long that this has become what has happened to them.** ThirdPersonPerson: One of said denizens..* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: [[spoiler:After Lara and Roth crash in the helicopter and Matthias kills him before escaping, the rest of the Endurance crew see the results of the crash.]] After Sam asks Lara if she's alright, Reyes sarcastically says, "Yeah, because it's all about Lara. ...Remember, ''she's'' the reason we're here."* LeParkour: Called "Traversal" by the dev team, this is used to some degree to get around, aided by her equipment. She has more limited ability to do this after being injured, however.* LetsGetDangerous: In-story: Lara is barely hanging on as she makes her way across the island. It's only during [[spoiler: her escape back through the Shanty Town after freeing her friends]] that she begins actively fighting back against the Solarii.* MacGyvering: Lara, a recently-graduated archaeology student, is capable of rigging up upgrades for her weapons out of random crap she finds around the island that a team of engineers might be hard-pressed to duplicate in real life without a machine shop. But [[RuleOfFun it's fun]], so it's okay. Even if the player doesn't upgrade, several of the new tools during the game are demonstrative of remarkable ingenuity.* MeaningfulEcho: A visual one: In the opening cutscene before the storm, Lara looks into a mirror in her quarters aboard ''Endurance'' during her monologue. Later in the game when Lara must return to the wreck of ''Endurance'' to [[spoiler: rescue Alex and salvage equipment needed to escape the island]], she winds up in her quarters and looks into the mirror again. There's a moment of surprise as she studies her battered reflection, and the scene serves to highlight for Lara just how much she has changed.* MeleeATrois: [[spoiler: Mathias' Solarii cult and Himiko's Stormguard are actually not aligned with each other, despite occupying the same territory, and the Stormguard will in fact attempt to kill any living human on sight, including Solarii members. Both are also out to kill Lara and her friends]].* MenAreTheExpendableGender: [[spoiler: Every man but one dies, every woman lives.]] However, the backstory makes it clear that the cult of the island doesn't recruit women into their ranks. The reasons are [[SoulJar nightmare]] [[SealedEvilInACan inducing.]] You'll find that all of the "shrines" set up by the cultists utilize strung up women who are not nearly decomposed enough to imply they're anything but recent victims. However while there are plenty of female corpses, no actual female characters are killed ''on screen''. [[spoiler:Except Himiko]].* {{Metroidvania}}: Of the ''[[VideoGame/LegacyOfKain Soul Reaver]]'' and ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamAsylum'' style, with your course of action being essentially linear, with backtracking required to previously explored areas with newly attained gadgets and upgrades to access previously unreachable collectibles.* MercyKill: ** In the beginning of the game, this is what the man chasing Lara seems to believe he's doing. He continually tries to drag her back down to him and implores her to come back when she escapes him, sounding genuine in his insistence that he's trying to help her. If you fail the quicktime event, he buries his axe into her chest and whispers, ''"Shh... it will be over soon."'' Considering [[HumanSacrifice what happens]] to women on the island, had it been anyone ''but'' [[RightManInTheWrongPlace Lara]], he probably ''would'' have been doing her a favor.** In one of the bunkers, a mook (who moments earlier had been trying to kill Lara) gets trapped under rubble by an explosion. He begs Lara to kill him. [[spoiler: You can choose to end his suffering or walk away, in which case he dies of his injuries. Though if you do decide to kill him, Lara follows it with "Go to Hell", taking a bit of the mercy out of the equation]].** While exploring the geothermal caverns, Lara [[spoiler:passes through the area where the Solarii take newly-captured arrivals to the island and essentially torture them into joining the cult. One of the prisoners begs for Lara to kill him, and the player is able to oblige if they desire]].* MolotovCocktail: Thrown by enemies usually to flush Lara out from where she's hiding behind cover. * MonsterDelay: Occurs at about the halfway point, where Lara is trapped in a large, collapsing windy temple. Something very large smashes a bunch of the men, and the survivors mention "the guardians," but they don't get into it. That's about it for the next few hours, although Lara does stumble upon one of these "guardians" and gets a brief glimpse of it before she is forced to escape.* MookHorrorShow: Lara + GrenadeLauncher = OhCrap! Lara obtains said grenade launcher from one of the CoDragons who reverts from EvilGloating to sheer panic when he realises she's about to blow him to kingdom come. Lara herself even ''yells at them'' that she's coming to kill them all.* MundaneUtility: The bow and arrow (and the respective modifications) see a ''lot'' of usage throughout the entire game. Even the ''shotgun'' is occasionally used by Lara to blast some makeshift barricades away.* MythologyGag: ** Aside from the aforementioned [[spoiler: GunsAkimbo]], there is a possibly unintentional one in Lara's ClothingDamage. Look at where her pants start to tear, if you start at the waist and move down. [[WhoWearsShortShorts Familiar length?]] And what does Dr. Whitman compare finding Yamatai to again?--> "It's like finding [[VideoGame/TombRaider Atlantis!]]"** Like in the original games, Lara first provision comes from a deceased person. In the original series it was her backpack. In this game, it's her bow and arrow.** When you find the last GPS cache [[spoiler:and the hidden document inside]], Lara lets out an "A-ha!" similar to when she found artifacts in ''Tomb Raider II''.*** The game even plays the same sound effect, to drive home the point.** One of the trophies/achievements is called "Unfinished Business", which was the title of the PC-only expansion to the first ''VideoGame/TombRaider''.* NiceJobBreakingItHero: In the backstory. [[spoiler: Priestess Hoshi breaking the cycle with her suicide doesn't end Himiko's reign, it only made her mad]].* NiceJobFixingItVillain: ** At one point, Lara is about a half-second away from being killed by [[spoiler:the Solarii when a number of Stormguard soldiers inadvertently save her by cutting down all of the Solarii; had the Stormguard not attacked the Solarii, Lara would have died, and Himiko would have had her sacrifice and been brought back to life]]. ** [[spoiler:Himiko herself plays this trope when the wind storm she summons to kill Lara only succeeds in blowing the giant Oni Stalker off the bridge... when he was about to kill Lara]].** [[spoiler:Himiko then does it again while Lara is climbing the final level, blasting the rock face ahead of Lara with lightning creating a nice, flat, easily climbable cliff face when Lara had no other way of continuing up toward Himiko]].** [[spoiler:Of course, by this point in the game, it should be noted that it's implied that Himiko is now actively helping Lara because she knows that Lara is capable of destroying her body and freeing her spirit, so it's likely she was saving Lara on purpose.]]* NoArcInArchery: Lara's arrows always fly straight and true. Holding the "fire" button down only changes the damage it deals to enemies; if you're aiming for someone's head, or something for your rope arrow to latch onto, it's just irrelevant.* NoHoldsBarredBeatDown: Lara is on the receiving end of a horrifically ''savage'' one midway through the game [[spoiler: after slipping into the Solarii stronghold where Sam is due to be sacrificed to Himiko. After shooting the mook about to immolate her, Lara is grabbed, thrown to the ground and absolutely ''pummeled'' by Dimitri and Nikolai before Mathias stops them. She's unable to even lift her head on her own and her face is a bloody mess afterwards.]]* NoOneGetsLeftBehind: Subverted and then played straight. Near the end of the game, when Lara goes off to investigate, Reyes, having been up to this point cold and hostile to Lara, explicitly says that she plans on leaving the island with or without her. However, when Whitman betrays the group and hands Sam back over to Mathias, Lara attempts to tell Reyes and Jonah to leave if she doesn't make it back, but Reyes completely goes back on her earlier words and reassures Lara that they aren't leaving her behind.* TheNotLoveInterest[=/=]HeterosexualLifePartners: Sam to Lara. Sam being a DamselInDistress is Lara's primary motivation for the majority of the game, they clearly mean a lot to each other to the point of being the most important person in their lives, and Sam stands by Lara in total support no matter what her decision.* NotSoDifferent: Mathias brings this up whenever he talks to Lara, saying they both kill to survive and get off the island. His journal entries, however, paint him as being Lara's EvilCounterpart at best: whereas Lara tries to save her shipmates, Mathias passively watched his crew try to escape the island -- at his suggestion -- and prove his theory that it would be impossible. He also tortures the male survivors of wrecks in order to brainwash them into joining his cult, and if that fails, he leaves them in the Pit to rot. Female survivors are sacrificed in rituals that potentially involve burning them alive on a pyre. Conversely, Lara is only guilty of killing people who are ''directly'' trying to kill her, or have proven that they ''would'' kill her if she gave them the chance.** Some of the Mooks do not actually believe in the cult nearly as much as the others and are trying to survive on the island by being part of the Solarii so they can finally go home. They probably intend to kill Lara on sight since they believe she will do the same to them if given the chance. This is true even more for the mini-bosses due to [[ItsPersonal them wanting to avenge their brothers]], while Lara would want to avenge [[spoiler: Grim, Roth, Alex]].* NoticeThis: Most climbable surfaces have white on them, like flaking-off white paint. Lara's rope arrows can only stick to other rope-covered surfaces, too, and those usually are white ropes. Most of the stuff you can burn is wrapped or covered in white cloth. Still, it's done well enough that it's not ''intrusive'' or glaringly unrealistic like most examples of this trope.** Or you can trigger Survival Instincts where the world turns black-and-white. Anything you can interact with glows golden.** Wandering near a Secret Tomb will cause the game to play a very noticeable bell-ringing sound.* OffscreenTeleportation: It's not at all clear how some of the bad guys get around. Many probably climb and crawl the same way Lara does, but it's not clear, and some seem to appear in places that would be impossible. The biggest offender is the scavenger at the very start of the game -- he doesn't seem to be taking the same path through the caverns as Lara at all. Technically, Lara does this when she uses the base camps as a WarpWhistle to travel around the islands, even to places she should not have been able to get back to. This is so the player can backtrack to find the collectibles and complete challenges.* [[OneManArmy One-Woman Army]]: Lara becomes this through necessity.-->'''[[GenreBlind Mook 1]]:''' She's [[JustOneMan just one girl]]!-->'''[[GenreSavvy Mook 2]]:''' [[LampshadeHanging That "one girl" is KICKING OUR ASSES!]]* OriginsEpisode: Details this Lara's transformation from ActionSurvivor to ActionGirl.* PamphletShelf: Much of the details of the story only exist in the various Journals scattered around the island.* PerpetualStorm: The island of Yamatai is surrounded by a perpetual storm, preventing Lara and the others from leaving.* PlayableEpilogue: While the story doesn't support it, the game lets you back on the island after you've finished the story to allow you to get HundredPercentCompletion.* PointOfNoReturn: Before re-entering the monastery, you are warned that you cannot fast-travel after leaving the camp by the entrance.* PosthumousCharacter: Several, mainly via the documents Lara discovers scattered around the island:** [[spoiler: Himiko, the Sun Queen, whose soul is trapped in her decaying body, but still maintains control over the weather and creates the furious storms that wreck any ships and aircraft that approach Yamatai, and keeps the survivors on the island. She's arguably the BiggerBad or ManBehindTheMan to Mathias, as there are implications that she is directly influencing his actions. How else would he know the incantation for Himiko's soul to transfer into a new vessel?]]** Hoshi is a young priestess who served Himiko, and offers some insight into life on the island. [[spoiler: Her writings reveal to Lara that Himiko has [[BodySurf transferred her soul from one host to another for centuries]], and that Hoshi was intended to be the latest vessel. She commits suicide to put an end to the GrandTheftMe, but also leaves the Queen [[AndIMustScream trapped in her old decaying corpse]], leading to nearly 2000 years of shipwrecks as she vents her rage through the furious storms surrounding the island]].** Himiko's General who commands The Stormguard. [[spoiler: He was responsible for selecting and preparing the priestesses for Himiko to transfer her soul into but Hoshi broke the cycle by killing herself -- with his own dagger, no less. The General believed he had failed his Queen and also committed suicide. Lara later discovers his remains and learns the truth about Himiko and the Stormguard]].** An unnamed ambassador to Yamatai. [[spoiler: He was actually a spy, of whom Himiko was well-aware but allowed him to do his job. When his mission is complete he intends to return home and warn his superiors that an attack against Yamatai would be suicide. He mentions seeing some dark and very disturbing practices on which he does not elaborate, and his ultimate fate is unknown, though some of the relics and journals imply that he was killed, his ruler attacked Yamatai because they weren't warned, and were destroyed by the Stormguard. Himiko was then going to invade his nation, but was stopped when Hoshi committed suicide, trapping Himiko in a corpse]].** Several other minor characters also leave writings, including a Japanese soldier whose unit was sent to garrison the island during WorldWarII, ([[spoiler: and were subsequently slaughtered by the Stormguard]]) [[ThoseWackyNazis German scientists]] sent to the island during the war to research the weather phenomenon and determine if there is a military application for it, and [[spoiler: A cryptic message from an unnamed agent of an organization called "Trinity" that ran afoul of Mathias and his cult while attempting to stop the Solarii]].* ThePrecariousLedge: Lara has to travel like this quite a few times: she has to move across a ledge at least once on a cliff face with her back to the cliff. Behind her, structures are being destroyed in a violent wind storm.* PressXToNotDie: Several cutscenes fall into this category (the infamous AttemptedRape being an early example).* PrimalFear: Deliberately exploited by the developers to make the players feel as uncomfortable as possible. Himiko help you if you're claustrophobic (people with fear of heights will also have their fair share of cringe inducing moments, and there's a lovingly squicky moment where Lara is [[spoiler: dunked in and has to wade through a standing pool of human blood]].)* PsychoForHire: Vladimir is described in EnemyChatter as loving to kill people.* PuzzleBoss: There's only really two bosses in the game, and they both require Lara to use unconventional tactics to beat them.* QuirkyMiniBossSquad: The trio of Russian brothers seems to serve this role for Mathias, coupled with CoDragons. * RailingKill: Using the rope arrow on a mook standing on a balcony will cause Lara to yank him off the ledge (and in at least one case you can do this by ''pulling down the entire balcony''). Mooks can also tumble over balconies when shot, and StuffBlowingUp (grenades, making someone [[OhCrap drop dynamite]] by [[HoistByHisOwnPetard shooting them before they can throw it]], shooting ExplodingBarrels, etc.) can fling them over ledges as well.* RareCandy: Weapon parts are randomly found in salvage crates or on enemies. If you find a set of them, you unlock a better version of your current weapon that's capable of sustaining more upgrades.* RecycledTitle: Though most just call it "Tomb Raider 2013" to distinguish.* RiddleForTheAges: Even if you comb the island and land 100% completion, read all the old documents and extrapolate from all the ancient ruins of the island, there's just some things that go unexplained.* RiversOfBlood: Lara wades through a stream of gore full of people sacrificed by the island's cult. * RomanticTwoGirlFriendship: ''Very'' heavy undertones of this between Lara and Sam.* SatelliteCharacter: No one in the game besides Lara seems to get much in the way of development. Instead they all seem like vehicles to help further develop ''her'' character growth.* SavageWolves: The wolves in the game are large and often stalk you in packs of three. You eventually even have to go into a wolf den.* SayMyName: "Lara!" "Sam!" "LARA!" "''SAAAAAM''!" Bonus points for even the subtitles eventually using all caps.* ScreamDiscretionShot: When Lara is about to cauterize her side wound, just as she's about to stick herself with a heated arrowhead, the camera cuts to the outside of the helicopter she's in, depicting a flock of birds being driven from their perch as Lara screams. The scene then cuts back to Lara throwing the arrow down while yelping and whimpering in pain.* SealedEvilInACan: [[spoiler:The Sun Queen, who after a botched attempt at doing so hundreds of years ago, is waiting to have her soul transferred into the body of an applicable vessel]].* SemperFi: There's an entire collection of artifacts belonging to United States Marine Corps troops Lara can discover, and the category itself uses this as the name.* SequelHook: Both in the ending cutscene [[spoiler: and the hidden document you get for collecting all the GPS caches which talk of some organization called Trinity that went to the island for The Star Phenomenon, but failed in their mission]]. And [[spoiler: in the ending, Lara is reading her father's journal, where the word ''CROATOAN'' is prominently written in red ink on the page. This was the word left carved into a tree at the abandoned Roanoke Colony in North Carolina]]. And TheBackwardsR message [[spoiler: on the page opposite (see trope entry above]].* ShortRangeShotgun: Played completely straight. The shotgun has devastating power at short range, but falls off dramatically beyond a few paces. The game attempts to alleviate this with the Full Choke alternate fire mode but the range improvement is negligible and at the cost of hitting power to boot (which actually runs ''counter'' to the point of full choke on an actual shotgun: tighten the pattern for greater hitting power throughout its range). [[GunsDoNotWorkThatWay It also sort of ignores the fact that choke on a shotgun can't be adjusted on the fly like that.]]** The whole upgrade system runs on AcceptableBreaksFromReality in terms of what is made with weapons, how the parts are gathered and [[UniversalAmmunition what is fed to guns]]. * ShoutOut: ** Both "Hunter" and "Guerrilla" {{DLC}} costumes are reference toward ''Franchise/{{Predator}}'' franchise. "Hunter" dresses Lara in camouflage pants and a coat of mud in a reference to the first film, while "Guerrilla" is the same outfit Royce wears in ''Film/{{Predators}}''.** The "Aviatrix" {{DLC}} costume dresses Lara in a 1930s style leather bomber jacket, in a reference to the ''Franchise/IndianaJones'' films.** At one point, Lara ends up in a plane suspended over the edge of a waterfall. She drops onto the glass of the cockpit, which slowly cracks beneath her as she tries to reach for a nearby pack. This is almost certainly a nod to the famous trailer scene in ''[[JurassicPark The Lost World: Jurassic Park]]''.** The story itself might be a partial shout-out to ''Series/{{LOST}}''; [[spoiler:Lara and friends find themselves stranded on a mysterious island that appears to be gripped by an unnatural force that won't allow them to leave. Furthermore, the island is inhabited by a dangerous cult made up of people who had previously been stranded there before they were initiated into the group, and their leader gives them orders on behalf of an unseen godlike figure]].** It might also be a partial shout-out to ''Series/{{Arrow}}.'' A young playgirl ends up shipwrecked on an island, forced to survive and evolve into a killing machine against brutal mercenaries, uses a bow as her main weapon and would later become a hero...ic, sort of, woman trying to remain idealistic on the SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism.** A particularly effective and nightmarish one to ''Film/ApocalypseNow'' where Lara escapes capture [[http://static.giantbomb.com/uploads/original/15/153488/2446979-tombraider_2013_03_05_22_24_38_600.png by jumping down into a river of blood.]] Or it could be a shout out to Film/TheDescent - a lone woman, with nothing more than a climbing axe to defend herself, hunted down in a dark cave. The bloodbath scene is practically ripped from the film and [[BreakTheCutie being the moment when the main character completely snaps]].** The mission to hunt down a deer for food is called, appropriately, [[Series/ManVsWild Woman Vs. Wild]].** The earliest achievement for finding collectible artifacts is called "Series/RelicHunter."** Another achievement is called [[MortalKombat Get over Here!]], where you use the rope arrow to pull 5 mooks to their doom.** About halfway through the game, when you earn enough skill points to purchase the Dodge Counter move, you'll find that it allows Lara to instantly retaliate against a melee attack by ducking it and jamming an arrow through an opponent's knee. The achievement for doing this a set number of times is, of course, called "[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Former Adventurer]]."** The ''Endurance'' was the name of Ernest Shackleton's ship in [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Trans-Antarctic_Expedition an expedition to the Antarctic that also went horribly wrong]].** When escaping the Solarii fortress to a waiting rescue helicopter, the objective is given as, you guessed it, [[Franchise/{{Predator}} "Get to the chopper".]]** The [[EliteMook Somalian]] apparently takes some cues from [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater Colonel Volgin]], in that he's a MightyGlacier who, when [[ColdBloodedTorture torturing people]], tends to end up losing his cool and killing them before they get a chance to reveal anything useful.** The game has at least two to ''Film/TheDescent''. A scene early on where Lara is crawling out of and emerging from a narrow cave is reminiscent of that film's ending [[spoiler:(or, in the original British cut, the false ending)]]. Later, Lara is seen slowly rising from a pool of blood in a manner so similar to one of ''The Descent''[='=]s most iconic scenes that it couldn't possibly be a coincidence. Alternatively, it could be a reference to the end of Film/ApocalypseNow.** The game was well in development by the time ''Film/TheHungerGames'' was released in theaters, but even so, the fact that Lara [[TheArcher wields a bow and arrow]] and bears [[CelebrityResemblance a striking resemblance]] to Creator/JenniferLawrence[[note]]She was actually based on model Megan Farquhar.[[/note]] had to have been noticed by someone on the development team.** Early in the game, when things are about to take a turn for the worse, Lara says "I've got a bad feeling about this." It's a common phrase, but likely a shout-out to ''Film/StarWars'' given the target audience.* ShowDontTell: Probably no-one cared about this rule when [[spoiler: Alex's affection for Lara was explicitly stated. All we know about his feelings toward Lara comes from a single note found around 3[=/=]4 of whole game]]. ''Nothing'' besides that note was indicating anything to that point, making the whole deal very artificial, [[spoiler: which may of course have been the point as the note and Lara's comment on it speculate that Lara didn't even notice his interest. Well... she didn't and thus, [[PaintingTheMedium neither did the player]]]].* ShownTheirWork: Some of the military equipment scattered throughout the island is fairly accurately-modeled. A wrecked B-25 Mitchell appears early on (with parts of another later in the game) and other wreckage includes a [=G4M=] "Betty" bomber, while the basic machine gun is the Japanese Type-100. The descriptions and uses of many of the artifacts Lara discovers are also fairly accurate.* SoProudOfYou: [[ParentalSubstitute Roth]] says this to Lara.--> '''Roth''': Whatever happens, I want you to know that I loved you like the daughter I never had. Iím proud of you. * SpannerInTheWorks: Lara ends up as this for both the Solarii and [[spoiler: Himiko]].* StealthBasedGame: To a degree. There is a lot of emphasis on choosing the right way to engage an enemy, and entire enemy encounters can be subverted by careful use of LeParkour.* StupidityIsTheOnlyOption: On three different occasions the player is required to tear down an entire area just to proceed, two times ''explosively'', and all three times Lara barely escapes with her life and kills other people in the process. The third time is preceded by repeatedly detonating natural gas veins deep underground, which any miner will tell you is a bad idea.* TheStraightAndArrowPath: Lara's most iconic weapon in the game is her hunting bow, which begins as a makeshift longbow and ends as a professional sports bow. She has access to a nice assortment of guns as well, but for most of the game the bow is preferable due to its relatively high damage output and the fact that it's completely silent, whereas her other weapons make quite some noise. In addition, a skill available early in the game allows players to reclaim any arrows that hit an enemy or animal from their body, giving the bow effectively infinite ammo for a good shot.* TacticalSuicideBoss: [[spoiler:The Oni Stalker]] wears impenetrable armor everywhere ''except'' for its back. Guess which part of its body it exposes when it attacks.* TakeAThirdOption: [[spoiler: Mathias firmly believes that the only way to escape the island is to give Himiko a new body, otherwise there's no way to stop the storms that trap everyone who arrives on the island. Lara discovers there's another option when she reaches the tomb of the Stormguard General and reads his last words: The storms are the result of Himiko's rage over being trapped in her decaying corpse, and she realizes that destroying the body will set the Sun Queen's spirit free and end her rage]].* TakeCover: Lara will automatically duck behind the nearest available cover whenever enemies are in the vicinity, and step out when they are dead.* TakeYourTime: At any point in the game it's possible to ignore the story, turn around, and go exploring.* TakingTheBullet: [[spoiler: [[ParentalSubstitute Roth]] does this for Lara, shielding her from an axe thrown by Mathias. It leads to plenty of [[SurvivorsGuilt Survivor's Guilt]] for her afterwards]].* TakingYouWithMe: [[spoiler: During Grim's DyingMomentOfAwesome, he spear-tackles a Solarii off of the platform, but said Solarii grabs ahold of him and drags him down with him.]]* ThankingTheViewer:Thank you for taking the time to complete our game" in the first part of the credit.* TheManyDeathsOfYou: So, so many ways to die. It's just short of ''Franchise/DeadSpace'' levels of carnage. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-w-43kTREY&feature=youtu.be Here's a compilation!]]* ThisIsGonnaSuck: Lara says "I've got a bad feeling about this" on her way to the radio tower, early in the game.* ThoseWackyNazis: Communications dating to WorldWarII Lara discovers on the island indicates that the Germans sent scientists to the island to study the weather phenomenon in the event that it might be something of use to the war effort. Partly TruthInTelevision: There was a technological interchange between UsefulNotes/NaziGermany and ImperialJapan during the War, but nothing significant.* ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks: [[spoiler: Mathias]] kills [[spoiler: Roth]] by flinging an axe into his back.* TooDumbToLive: Pretty much ''everyone'' (except for Lara, obviously) for [[spoiler: trusting Whitman at the beach. It's not that it's his word against Lara's about collaborating with Mathias. ''He outright admits in front of '''everyone''''' that he cooperated with the Solarii in the palace to save his own neck]].** Whitman himself has several stupid moments but the biggest one results in his [[spoiler: painful death at the hands of the Stormguard. He calmly walks towards two armored undead Samurai and tries to strike up a conversation. Whilst they approach him with swords drawn. Mathias had deceived him into thinking that the Stormguard would let them pass willingly but he really didn't need to walk right up to them to introduce himself!]]** [[spoiler: Alex in a massive case of LoveMakesYouStupid. The NonActionGuy going alone to retrieve tools from the wreck of ''Endurance'' with psychotic cultists with a hair-trigger about just to impress the girl he's crushing on? Yeah. [[SarcasmMode that will end well.]] All it probably did was pile on Lara's pre-existent SurvivorsGuilt]].* TookALevelInBadass: Lara goes from a NaiveNewcomer just out of school at the start of the game to an AdventurerArchaeologist by the end.* TrashcanBonfire: Often seen scattered around the Solarii strongholds, bunkers and bases.* TwoferTokenMinority: Lara's best friend Sam Nishimura, Japanese and female. Reyes is a Triple Token Minority; black, Latino and female.* UnfriendlyFire: Multiple times, Solarii will fire heavy weapons at Lara despite their own being in the way.* UniversalAmmunition: ZigZagged. Each of Lara's weapons use a different type of ammunition. However ammunition is universal to the weapon ''class''. This is most egregious with the pistol and rifle - ammo for the former is simultaneously 9×19mm Para, .45 ACP, and .50 Action Express, while for the latter it's 8×22mm Nambu, 7.62×39mm, and 5.56×45mm.* UnwillingSuspension: Happens to Lara twice. Both times, she manages to escape on her own.* UtilityWeapon: Lara's pickaxe is a tool first and a weapon second. In fact, she needs to take many levels in badass before she can even think about swinging it with intent to kill. It's used in a bunch of ways; prying open doors, turning cranks, climbing rocks, zipping down ziplines, and striking a flint to light her torch at will. In addition, the shotgun, assault rifle, and especially bow all aid Lara in navigating the world and bypassing obstacles. The only weapon she has that's only useful for killing people is the pistol, and it makes up for its lack of utility with [[BoomHeadshot ludicrous precision]].* WalkingDisasterArea: Many of the ruins have existed for decades or centuries. Thanks either to her combat skills or her bad luck, a lot of them wind up collapsing or burning down minutes after Lara gets there.* WakingUpElsewhere: After the opening cutscene, Lara's situation. Bonus points for being upside-down. She later is captured and has a similar situation, barring the upside down.* WakingUpAtTheMorgue: Lara wakes up in the middle of several horrific ''charnal houses.''* WeaponOfChoice: Now a bow, as opposed to her old dual pistols.[[spoiler:.. until the very end of the game]].* WeatherManipulation: [[spoiler:Primary ability of Games *BigBad Himeko. She is the source of the Islands Sentient Storms]].* WhatIsEvil: The BigBad notes that there's no such thing as heroes on Yamatai, just survivors.* WhatMeasureIsAMook: While not emphasized, the game does show that many of the Solarii that Lara massacres her way through are actually just regular people who were stranded on the island by Himiko's storm wall, and are just following Mathias in order to survive, although many have become quite crazy and brutal from having spent so much time on the island. This serves to emphasize the "backed into a corner" attitude Lara sports as she goes from just barely surviving encounters with the Solarii at the beginning, to brutally slaughtering them without remorse by the end. Even though they're normal, everyday people who are merely doing exactly what Lara herself has done simply to survive the extreme situation they're all in, they cannot be reasoned with, and they are in her way... There is one point, after [[spoiler: escaping the Oni hunting Lara in the monastery ]], she will drop into a room with several Solarii. One of them notices her and suggests that they work together to escape the monastery, stating that the "Guardians" will kill them all regardless. Lara pauses for a moment and starts asking about their attackers until one of the mooks changes his mind and yells at his teammate to kill her, forcing Lara to defend herself.* WhatTheHellHero: Mathias calls out Lara for indiscriminately slaughtering her way through the island and gaining a large bodycount. Of course, [[{{Hypocrite}} he's one to talk]].* WorstAid: It's generally held that it's safer to keep it in if you have a long bit of shrapnel in you (pulling it out risks rupturing internal organs, or bleeding out). Tell that to Lara at the beginning of the game.** [[{{JustifiedTrope}} Justified]] in that combat medicine is often differentiated from traditional medicine in that getting a person back into action, even possibly risking long-term damage, is a decision that field medics often have to make. In active fire (or otherwise chronically dangerous) situations, knowing you have to keep moving may be enough motivation to remove the shrapnel rather than risk it causing further damage as you move around.* WouldHitAGirl: Many if not all of the Solarii scavengers won't hesitate to hurt Lara, and this is observed most clearly in the cutscene when she's [[spoiler: captured while in the Pit and [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown brutally beaten up]] by Dmitri, Nikolai and a whole host of other Solarii who want revenge on the Outsider]]. In normal fights, {{Mooks}} will actively run up to Lara and engage her in melee combat, bladed weapons at the ready. * WhyWontYouDie: A mook, late in the game.-->'''Mook:''' It's no good! She just won't die!* XMeetsY: Described as ''VideoGame/{{Uncharted}}'' meets ''VideoGame/FarCry3''. The original game was ''Franchise/PrinceOfPersia'' meets Franchise/IndianaJones. Then ''Franchise/PrinceOfPersia'' reinvented itself with extra parkour and a healthy bit of ''Tomb Raider'''s platforming. ''Uncharted'' pops up a few years later, takes ''that'', and adds in [[VideoGame/GearsOfWar cover shooting]] and the [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil4 readying your gun to fire in third-person perspective]]. Now we've got 2013 ''Tomb Raider'', which is an adequate summary of how the genre has evolved in the last seventeen years.* YouHaveResearchedBreathing: Lara must spend a skill point to learn to retrieve arrows from dead enemies and animals.* {{Youkai}}: The Oni, The Sun Queen's Imperial Stormguard.** NonIndicativeName[=/=]SadlyMythtaken: Oni are usually portrayed as large, ogre-like demons with horns and wielding iron clubs. In this game the "Oni" are just undead samurai. However, their leader is a nearly invincible, 10 foot tall ogre-like man with the Oni-style iron club, so that might be where they got their name.* YoureInsane: ** Sam says this StockPhrase word-for-word to Mathias. And she's absolutely right: the guy is batshit ''crazy.''** Later, when Lara and Roth are being rescued by a helicopter, Lara goes as far as to threaten the pilot at gunpoint to force him to land and save the others; the pilot's reaction is "''[[PrecisionFStrike Fuck]]! You're crazy!!''" Considering what Lara was doing at the time, it's not ''totally'' unjustified.----